Major Appliances/Fishy smell in dryer

rrrthestak wrote at 2008-10-17 01:07:43
You should also check your fuses and possibly the outlet that the dryer plugs into. This smell could come from the casing getting too hot and burning.

Jeff wrote at 2009-06-23 13:16:00
It is not a mouse. Maytags are faulty and they will try to blame the consumer. It is a mildew buildup due to bad seals. Call for repairs.

Leslie61270 wrote at 2011-09-23 12:22:05
I also had a fish odor while drying clothes today. I wanted to post in case someone in the future needed help and happened upon this post. The 220 outlet our dryer was plugged into had gone bad. It was corroded and burned. I recognize electrical smells (so i thought) I wouldn't have thought an electrical problem would cause a fishy odor, but it did. Our house could have easily burned. I often dry clothes at night. If you have a fishy smell while your dryer is running... turn it off. Check your wiring.

Atoyia052000 wrote at 2011-11-29 15:35:11
Thank you leslie61270!!!!! Had the same problem this week and the plug where it connected to dryer was almost burned in half!!! You probably saved our house from burning by posting your comment!!! Thank you dearly. :)

micstew wrote at 2011-12-18 20:36:31
Fish Smell = Outlet failure. At least at our house. Our house's dryer circuit was aluminum wiring which is historically dangerous due to the expansion and contraction of the metal that eventually causes loose connections, arching, heat, and fire. Inside the outlet box looks like a scene from a nuclear meltdown and the dryer was still running fine. Would have surely been worse had I not found this posting. THANK YOU LESLIE.

jpeppard wrote at 2012-01-26 08:02:06
We had a similar odor in our laundry room, one of the outlets was melting! it smelled just like bad fish. Check your outlets!!

Graham wrote at 2013-12-07 19:59:41
Hi folks.

Source of the fishy smell sorted.

Thanks for all the tips.

Just checked out our fishy smell and it was the plug behind the dryer. One of the terminals was black and the socket was melting.

Think the fuse was loose in the plug which was causing the problem.

Sandman wrote at 2014-05-13 20:55:25
Thank you for all the information that is listed here! Could very well have saved our house from burning down!

Sandman wrote at 2014-05-13 20:55:38
Thank you for all the information that is listed here! Could very well have saved our house from burning down!

nitamail03 wrote at 2014-10-07 23:55:35
This happened to us today.....turned the dryer off because of the smell....Googled "fishy smell in dryer" got this page. Thank you all....we would have lost the house.

Beth wrote at 2014-10-29 01:05:38
I had the same thing happen to me. Please check the outlet ours was almost melted and burnt. It had corrosion on the outlet. Thank goodness I Google it I wouldn't have known.!!

Qwerty wrote at 2014-11-23 00:55:06
Thank you all and Google - after a few weeks of a fish smell only while the dryer had run for like 5 or 10 minutes, I tried all I could think of to find the source - and finally googled just tonight. It is the outlet! It still smelled like fish when nowhere else did, and I found the plastic behind the plug has cracked and lost a chunk. Couple metal spots showing. So thankful for this series of posts. Because even if it wasn't bad enough to be dangerous, that smell was crazy making.

laundrymom wrote at 2014-11-26 13:01:25
Thank you to all who wrote about the dead fish dryer smell. It indeed was the electrical, which I never thought about checking first. We are all ready to brave the laundry room again without clothespins on our noses!

Paula wrote at 2014-12-01 00:10:00
Amazing! Our dryer had smelled like fish for several months. Had the vents cleaned and everything. Finally went online and got the answer right here! Check the outlet and and sure enough, it was all burnt. Changed it and everything seems to be fine thanks everyone!

sweetie wrote at 2015-01-11 21:03:50
thanks to all of you. we had the exact same thing happen with our LG dryer. smelled like fish and was the 220 outlet plug sparking from being loose. replaced it and the smell went away. could have been a fire! so grateful for finding these posts. It was NOT mildew. look at the plug in prong.

Scott wrote at 2015-01-12 00:35:17
This is a great website. I Google cod smell in wash room and found this page. Opened the outlet and found corrission. Replacing tomorrow. Thanks for the help.

shel wrote at 2015-02-04 06:10:00
I have been looking for days as to why my dryer smely my whole house up so bad it give me headache and made me vomit. I read this post and thought that cant be it because we JUST installed the wire and is a brans new amana dryer. I kept searching tonight and couldn't find nothing else relating to my problem. I said the heck with it, ill look just incase. There is was. It was ALL melting. I have been very persistent with finding the problem. I think I bothered everyone to death about it. No one ever thought to look. Thanks for posting this information. It was burning even when dryer was off. I have two small kids in my home. This could have ended in a tragic if I had not read this post. It may would have been to late by the time I would have thought "let me unplug it" or something.

Jason wrote at 2015-04-27 00:57:42
Thank you so much to whomever posted this thread and answered the issue with the faulty socket. We have been experiencing a fishy smell from our dryer for over a year! It went away for a few months and recently returned. I tore the dryer apart this weekend looking for the dead "culprit" causing the smell with no success. I decided to Google the issue today and ended up here. After reading about the faulty socket from others on this thread I investigated ours and found a half burnt 220 wall socket. This thread saved our home from possible destruction, thank you!

Ro wrote at 2015-05-06 00:42:52
Thanks so much for this! Just Googled "my dryer smells like fish" and was led here. Checked the power outlet, and indeed, both the outlet and plug on cord were hot and have burn marks! Fortunately i was running it through an extension cord, so my dryer plug is fine, wow! Just wow! Thank you so much!

pat hayes wrote at 2015-06-17 19:13:05
I have had a fishy smell in my dryer. Today I pulled the dryer out and the vent hose was off. I looked down and a dead bird was hanging out the vent on my dryer. That was causing the smell. I pulled it out, reattached the vent hose and the smell is gone. How it got there I do not know but it is gone now. I was ready to buy a new dryer. Sometimes by waiting and thinking about the problem you will save money.

Big V wrote at 2015-09-30 04:29:26
Smell was horrible in my clothes fish smell worse than the ocean. Checked all plugs, wires and sensors in the dryer. Everything was just fine. Mixed up 50/50 solution of white vinegar and water, applied a fine mist over entire inside of dryer and dryer door, took out screen and misted it as well. Threw a load of laundry that I washed with vinegar and washing detergent into the dryer and applied fine mist to the top of clothes then started drying. No more smell I'm the wash or the dryer. Make sure in future that your load of clothes get completely dry and don't sit moist in the dryer over night. No the most will not hurt the inside of the dryer or sensors, they get steamed anyway from clothes drying. Enjoy and your welcome.

Ddfspf wrote at 2015-11-03 01:04:02
Thank goodness for this blog! Stumbled upon it tonight after Googling "fishy smell in true laundry room". Happy to report that after reading the posts above and checking the outlets for the washer and dryer. We found a corroded outlet at the dryer. Needless to say I am grateful for all the the previous posts.

Mike wrote at 2015-11-27 15:49:02
Thank you guys. Had the same issue and check the plug and outlet and was melted on both side. You saved another house from burning down.

Rich wrote at 2016-01-04 21:02:11
Thank you! The fish smell was the plug melting. Had caused kitchen plugs to trip a couple weeks ago but kept working. Plastic around live was melted

carrie wrote at 2016-01-11 00:03:43
Thank you!!! Fish smell was the plug. We looked high and low and clothes smelled fishy. Thought it was detergent, sitting too long. Googled and this came up, and the outlet and cord were burnt. Thank you!!

Ncgirl wrote at 2016-04-04 20:38:26
Mine was doing the same with the fish smell checked it and it was a burnt plug actually was melting ty for the previous post probably saved our home and lives.

pjgoodson wrote at 2016-04-17 20:59:37
So glad we found this!The fishy smell from our dryer had been going on for over a year. We thought it was something with our dryer.It was getting old! We had to buy a new washer and dryer this week. Just cranked up the dryer and slowly there it was!

The only thing we did that was the same was we used the same fabric softener but everything else was different. But we thought how can it be the fabric softener when the clothes don't smell like fish? This has to be the answer...we were blissfully ignorant up til now but it's scary...we have no choice but to finish the load thats in there then we're going to check it out. Everything looks fine on the outside..check your Outlets people!!!!

pjgoodson wrote at 2016-04-17 20:59:50
So glad we found this!The fishy smell from our dryer had been going on for over a year. We thought it was something with our dryer.It was getting old! We had to buy a new washer and dryer this week. Just cranked up the dryer and slowly there it was!

The only thing we did that was the same was we used the same fabric softener but everything else was different. But we thought how can it be the fabric softener when the clothes don't smell like fish? This has to be the answer...we were blissfully ignorant up til now but it's scary...we have no choice but to finish the load thats in there then we're going to check it out. Everything looks fine on the outside..check your Outlets people!!!!

Kazzyb wrote at 2016-10-25 23:25:51
Thanx for the advice ,had fishy smell for a few weeks and the extension plug was red hot !!! Could have quite easily set on fire 😣 thanks again 👍

jlr wrote at 2016-11-23 03:42:04
Kudos to this forum, I have been trying to diagnose a occasional weird smell from my dryer for about a year. I've had the dryer vent cleaned and I've taken the dryer apart to look for dead critters or mold, but I never found anything that would explain the smell. Last weekend I disconnected the dryer in order to work on the washing machine, and the smell returned with a vengeance after I reconnected the dryer. After reading this forum I took apart the wall outlet and sure enough, a hole was burned through the side of the casing, one of the plug posts was blackened, and the insulation on one of the wires was burnt to a crisp.

Thanks again for the info, just happy to get this taken care of before something bad happened ...